Systems and methods for digitally knowing and verifying youths

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for remotely verifying an identity of a minor to open an account at a financial institution for the minor are provided. A method includes receiving, by a financial institution computing system associated with the financial institution, a request from an adult computing device associated with the adult to open the account; remotely verifying, by a verification circuit, an identity of the adult based on received information regarding the adult; receiving, by the financial institution computing system, information relating to the minor from a minor computing device associated with the minor; remotely verifying, by the verification circuit, the identity of the minor based on the received information relating to the minor; and opening, by an account opening circuit associated with the financial institution computing system, an account on behalf of the minor.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional ApplicationNo. 62/969,513, filed Feb. 3, 2020, the entire contents of which areincorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for remotelydigitally knowing and verifying an identity of a person and,particularly, a youth or minor.

BACKGROUND

Know your customer, also known as know your client or, “KYC,” is theprocess of an entity (e.g., a business) verifying the identity of itsclients to prevent the business from being used, intentionally orunintentionally, by fraudsters. Know your customer processes areemployed by companies of all sizes for the purpose of ensuring theircustomers, agents, consultants, or distributors are for exampleanti-bribery compliant, and are actually who the person/customer claimsto be. Banks, insurers, export creditors and other financialinstitutions are increasingly demanding that customers provide detailedidentity information to fulfill KYC requirements. Providing of thisinformation is usually required to be done in-person with arepresentative of the financial institution. This may be potentiallyburdensome to some individuals.

SUMMARY

One embodiment relates to a method for remotely verifying an identity ofa minor to open an account at a financial institution for the minor. Themethod includes receiving, by a financial institution computing systemassociated with the financial institution, a request from an adultcomputing device associated with the adult to open the account; remotelyverifying, by a verification circuit, an identity of the adult based onreceived information regarding the adult; receiving, by the financialinstitution computing system, information relating to the minor from aminor computing device associated with the minor; remotely verifying, bythe verification circuit, the identity of the minor based on thereceived information relating to the minor; and opening, by an accountopening circuit associated with the financial institution computingsystem, an account on behalf of the minor.

The method may further include communicating, by the verificationcircuit, with one or more databases to receive other informationregarding the minor. The other information regarding the minor mayinclude a social security number, a driver's license number, or a schoolemail address associated with the minor. The method further includescomparing, by the verification circuit, the received other informationregarding the minor to the received information relating to the minor;determining a match of at least one piece of other information to thereceived information; and responsive to the match, proceeding toremotely verify, by the verification circuit, the identity of the minor.

The method may still further include scraping, by the verificationcircuit, data from one or more social media profiles associated with theadult; comparing, by the verification circuit, the scraped data toinformation from the adult regarding the minor; and in response tomatch, verifying, by the verification circuit, the identity of theminor.

Another embodiment relates to a provider institution computing systemstructured to remotely verify an identity of a minor. The systemincludes a verification circuit coupled to a first computing deviceassociated with an adult and a second computing device associated with aminor, the verification structured to: receive information relating toan identity of the minor from the first computing device, theinformation comprising contact information for the minor; send anotification to the second computing device based on the informationreceived from the first computing device; and in response to receivingan affirmative reply from the second computing device, verify theidentity of the minor. The system further includes an account openingcircuit structured to open an account for the minor based on theidentity of the minor being verified by the verification circuit.

Yet another embodiment relates to a method for remotely identifying anidentity of a minor. The method includes receiving, by a financialinstitution computing system associated with a financial institution, arequest from an adult computing device associated with an adult to openan account at the financial institution for the minor; requesting, by averification circuit from one or more entities, information relating tothe identity of the minor based on the request; receiving, by theverification circuit from the one or more entities, the informationrelating to the identity of the minor; receiving, by the verificationcircuit from the adult computing device, information regarding theidentity of the minor; determining, by the verification circuit, thatthe information from the one or more entities verifies the identity ofthe minor based on a comparison of the information from the one or moreentities to the information received from the adult computing device;and upon determining that the information verifies the identity of theminor, opening, by an account opening circuit associated with thefinancial institution, an account for the minor.

This summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any waylimiting. Other aspects, inventive features, and advantages of thedevices and/or processes described herein, as defined solely by theclaims, will become apparent in the detailed description set forthherein, taken in conjunction with the accompanying figures, wherein likereference numerals refer to like elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a KYC computing system, according to anexample embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for KYC to verify anidentity of a minor or youth, according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating another method for KYC to verifyan identity of a minor or youth, according to another exampleembodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Before turning to the Figures, which illustrate the exemplaryembodiments in detail, it should be understood that the presentdisclosure is not limited to the details or methodology set forth in thedescription or illustrated in the Figures. It should also be understoodthat the terminology used herein is for the purpose of description onlyand should not be regarded as limiting.

When a customer opens a financial institution account, typically atleast two forms of identification are required so that the identity ofthe customer may be verified to avoid fraudulent accounts being opened.When opening an account for a youth, this process is more complex giventhe characteristics of the youth (e.g., a minor, not necessarily havingtwo forms of identification, having no pre-existing relationship withthe financial institution so that the financial institution may nottrust the minor, and so on). Accordingly and in addition to at least oneor more forms of identification, an adult typically must vouch for theminor—i.e., confirm the identity of the minor. This requires both theadult and the minor to be physically present at a physical location ofthe financial institution (e.g., a bank branch). The adult may also berequired to provide documents (e.g., birth certificate, proof ofguardianship, etc.) showing the relationship of the adult to the youth(e.g., parent, legal guardian, etc.). The vouching and at least one formof identification represent the KYC process for opening an account for aminor. Assuming the representative approves the documents and adultvouching for the minor, a joint account may be opened listing both theadult and the youth.

Various embodiments described herein relate to remote KYC for youths(e.g., performing a KYC process for a minor where the minor and/or adultare not physically located at a branch of a bank or other financialinstitution). As described herein, a “youth” is an individual under theage of majority (e.g., an individual not considered an adult bygoverning body where the individual resides), and may also be referredto herein as a “minor.” In one embodiment, the adult digitally andremotely vouches for the identity of the minor (e.g., by responding to anotification from a financial institution) such that no otherinformation is required for the financial institution before opening ofthe account. In another embodiment, the adult provides informationregarding the identity of the minor (e.g., photo identification, birthcertificate, etc.) that is verified by an independent third party. Instill another embodiment, the identity of the minor is verified bybuilding a profile of the minor and/or the adult based on available dataand comparing information in the profile to other verificationinformation. The identity of the minor can also be verified by anycombination of these methods.

In particular and in one embodiment, the remote KYC process is initiatedby a mobile device associated with an adult via a mobile applicationprovided by a financial or provider institution. The financialinstitution application may prompt the adult for a verification of theidentity of the minor prior to authorizing opening an account in theminor's name. The identity of the minor can be verified in various waysas alluded to above. In one embodiment, the identity of the minor isverified by initiating, from within the financial institutionapplication (e.g., via a chat option provided by a graphical userinterface), a video chat with a financial institution representative whocan in turn visually verify the minor and/or documents associated withthe identity of the minor. After the minor has been verified, theaccount opening process can proceed. The identity of the minor can alsobe verified by one or more third parties working in concert with thefinancial institution application. In such arrangements, the financialinstitution application may request that an independent third partyverify the identity of the minor. The independent third party mayattempt to verify the identity of the minor using one or more databasesand/or other information. The independent third party notifies thefinancial institution application regarding the verification process,and upon verifying the identity of the minor, the account openingprocess can proceed. In another embodiment, the financial institutionapplication can also independently verify the identity of the minor(e.g., verify the identity of the minor without using informationprovided by an adult associated with the minor). The financialinstitution application may construct, build, or otherwise generate aprofile of the minor using various databases and/or social media feedsto verify the identity of the minor and the relationship between theadult and the minor. Upon a successful verification of the identity ofthe minor by the financial institution application (financialinstitution computing system that supports and is coupled to the mobileapplication), the account opening process can proceed. Thus and in eachof these configurations, a minor is able to open an account(particularly, a joint account) remotely and digitally.

The systems and methods described herein provide technical solutions tovarious problems associated with verifying the identity of a minor whenopening an account at a financial institution. For example, an adulttypically must be present at a financial institution with the minor whenattempting to open an account for the minor with the financialinstitution. The adult must provide identifying documents proving boththe identity of the minor and the legal association of the minor withthe adult. In contrast, the systems and methods described herein providefor remotely and digitally verifying the identity of a minor such thatneither the minor nor the adult must be physically present at thefinancial institution to open an account. That said, digital and remoteverification of the identity of a minor is riskier than verification ofthe identity of the minor in person due to the possibility of providingcounterfeit documents electronically, fraudsters performingimpersonations to open accounts, etc. According to the presentdisclosure, additional safeguards and more stringent requirements forverification may be implemented to remotely and digitally verify theidentity of a minor. For example, the financial institution may providea shared application that is running on both of the minor's and adult'smobile device. The shared application provides a first security protocolof restricting access to the account application form to only the twosynced devices (e.g., another device could therefore not impersonate oneof the adult or minor's devices). Via the shared application, acquiredbiometric information of the minor may be compared to determined/knownbiometric information of the minor to verify the identity of the minor.Accordingly, a second security protocol advantage is then provided basedon the use of biometric information. In this regard, the providerinstitution computing system may have access to or acquire social mediainformation regarding the adult. From this information, a compilation ofpresumed minors associated with the adult may be determined. Then, ifthe biometric information (e.g., facial image) of this minor (asreceived from the minor's device) matches the biometric information of aminor from the compilation, the computing system determines that thereis a likelihood of association of the minor to the adult to confirm theidentity of the minor. Thus, the shared application provides a digitalversion of the adult vouching for the identity of the minor in that thecomputing system knows the mobile device information of the adult and bythat person sharing the application with the other device, the adult isvouching for the identity of the user of this other device. Incombination with the facial recognition (i.e., biometric information),two forms of identification are used to verify the identity of theminor. These features and advantages are further described herein.

Referring now to FIG. 1 , a block diagram of a KYC computing system 100is shown, according to an example embodiment. As shown, the KYC system100 includes an adult computing device 110 associated with an adult, aminor computing device 130 associated with a minor, a verificationcomputing system 140 associated with a third party verificationinstitution, and a provider institution computing system 150 associatedwith a provider institution (e.g., a bank, etc.). The various systemsand devices are operatively and communicatively coupled through anetwork 120, which may include one or more of the Internet, cellularnetwork, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, a proprietary banking network, or any other typeof wired or wireless network or a combination of wired and wirelessnetworks. In this regard, the network 120 is any suitable Local AreaNetwork (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN). For example, the network 120can be supported by Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), TimeDivision Multiple Access (TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)(particularly, Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO)), Universal MobileTelecommunications Systems (UMTS) (particularly, Time DivisionSynchronous CDMA (TD-SCDMA or TDS), Wideband Code Division MultipleAccess (WCDMA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), evolved Multimedia BroadcastMulticast Services (eMBMS), High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA),and the like), Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), Global Systemfor Mobile Communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access 1× RadioTransmission Technology (1×), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS),Personal Communications Service (PCS), 802.11X, ZigBee, Bluetooth,Wi-Fi, any suitable wired network, combinations thereof, and/or thelike. The network 120 is structured to permit the exchange of data,values, instructions, messages, and the like among the adult computingdevice 110, minor computing device 130, verification computing system140, and the provider institution computing system 150.

The adult computing device 110 (also referred to as “first computingdevice”) is a computing device associated with an adult (e.g., theprimary user of the adult computing device 110 is an adult) and includesa network interface circuit 112, an input/output (“I/O”) device 114, anda provider institution application 116. The adult computing device 110may be, for example, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a cellular phone, smartphone, a wearable device, internet ofthings (“IoT”) device, mobile handheld wireless e-mail device, personaldigital assistant, portable gaming device, or other suitable device(e.g., mobile and non-mobile devices).

The network interface circuit 112 is structured to enable the exchangeof communications over the network 120. The network interface circuit112 includes, for example, hardware and associated program logic thatcouples the adult computing device 110 to the network 120 to facilitateoperative communication with the minor computing device 130, theverification computing system 140, and the provider institutioncomputing system 150.

The I/O device 114 includes hardware and associated program logicconfigured to enable the adult computing device 110 to exchangeinformation with one or more of the minor computing device 130, theverification computing system 140, and the provider institutioncomputing system 150. The I/O device 114 may include systems,components, devices, and apparatuses that serve both input and outputfunctions and are configured to exchange information with externalsystems and/or devices (e.g., a computing system, or a computing deviceassociated with other individuals, etc.). Such systems, components,devices and apparatuses include, for example, a touch screen display, amicrophone, a camera, radio frequency transceivers (e.g., radiofrequency (“RF”) or NFC transceivers) and other short range wirelesstransceivers (e.g., Bluetooth®, laser-based data transmitters, etc.).

The provider institution application 116 is structured to facilitateaccess to information associated with a user's account(s) at a providerinstitution associated with the provider institution computing system150. The provider institution application 116 is also structured topermit a user to perform various functions related to the account(s)held by the provider institution. Examples of various functions include,but are not limited to, opening and closing accounts, applying forloans, depositing checks, paying bills, checking account balances, etc.In some embodiments, the provider institution application 116 is aseparate software application implemented on the adult computing device110. The provider institution application 116 may be downloaded by theadult computing device 110 prior to its usage, hard coded into thememory of the adult computing device 110, or be a web-based interfaceapplication such that the adult computing device 110 may provide a webbrowser to the application, which may be executed remotely from theadult computing device 110 or downloaded by the adult computing device110 just prior to its usage. In some embodiments, parts of the providerinstitution application 116 may be stored in the memory of the adultcomputing device 110 and others may be web-based. In such instances, theuser (i.e., adult in this configuration) may have to log onto or accessthe web-based interface before usage of the applications. Further, andin this regard, the provider institution application 116 may besupported by a separate computing system (i.e., the provider institutioncomputing system 150) including one or more servers, processors, networkinterface circuits, etc. that transmit applications for use to the adultcomputing device 110. In certain embodiments, the provider institutionapplication 116 includes an API and/or a software development kit(“SDK”) that facilitates the integration of other applications. Theprovider institution application 116 is coupled via the networkinterface circuit 112 over the network 120 to the provider institutioncomputing system 150.

In various arrangements, the provider institution application 116 isstructured to provide a prompt to the adult as part of an accountopening process for an account, and particularly a joint account withthe minor, at the provider institution. In such arrangements, theprovider institution application 116 may request or prompt the adult toinput information relating to opening an account (e.g., name, address,income, etc.). In arrangements where a user (the adult in thissituation) is attempting to open an account for a minor (e.g., a parentattempting to open an account for a child), the provider institutionapplication 116 may request information relating to the minor (e.g.,name, date of birth, social security number, relation to the userattempting to open the account on the minor's behalf, etc.). Theinformation relating to the minor may be used by the providerinstitution computing system 150 to verify or attempt to verify theidentity of the minor. The provider institution application 116 may alsorequest information relating to the adult (e.g., account number, name,passcode, etc.) to verify the identity of the adult. In someembodiments, the provider institution application 116 provides theinformation relating to the minor to the verification computing system140 or the provider institution computing system 150 to verify theidentity of the adult prior to permitting an account to be opened in theminor's name.

The minor computing device 130 (also referred to as “second computingdevice”) is a computing device associated with a minor (e.g., theprimary user of the minor computing device 130 is a minor yet the devicemay be owned by the adult or a different person/entity) and includes anetwork interface circuit 132, an input/output (“I/O”) device 134, andthe provider institution application 116. The minor computing device 130may be, for example, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a cellular phone, a smartphone, a wearable device, an internetof things (“IoT”) device, a mobile handheld wireless e-mail device, apersonal digital assistant, a portable gaming device, or other suitabledevice (e.g., mobile and non-mobile devices).

The network interface circuit 132 is structured to enable communicationsover the network 120 and includes, for example, hardware and associatedprogram logic that couples the minor computing device 130 to the network120 to facilitate communication with the adult computing device 110, theverification computing system 140, and the provider institutioncomputing system 150.

The I/O device 134 is substantially similar to the I/O device 114 andincludes hardware and associated program logic configured to enable theminor computing device 130 to exchange information with one or more ofthe adult computing device 110, the verification computing system 140,and the provider institution computing system 150.

The verification computing system 140 is configured to verify anidentity of an individual (e.g., the minor and/or the adult) andincludes a network interface circuit 142 and a verification circuit 144.The network interface circuit 142 is structured to enable communicationsover the network 120 and includes, for example, hardware and associatedprogram logic that couples the verification computing system 140 to thenetwork 120 to facilitate communication with the adult computing device110, the minor computing device 130, and the provider institutioncomputing system 150.

The verification circuit 144 is configured to search for, receive, andevaluate information associated with an individual and to determinewhether the information received and acquired reliably verifies theidentity of the individual (e.g., adult, minor, adult and minor). Forexample, the information received may include, but is not limited to, asocial security number, passport information, military information, adriver's license number, a state identification number, informationregarding a birth certificate, a school-issued email address associatedwith the individual, images of the individual from social media profilesassociated with the individual, images of the individual from socialmedia profiles associated with an adult purporting to be associated withthe individual, etc. The verification circuit 144 may include variousalgorithms or search logic to aggregate the information and determinewhether the information reliably verifies the identity of theindividual. For example, the verification circuit 144 may utilize socialmedia scoring or other profile or web activity scoring methods to i)determine that user activity is of a user, and ii) combine this scoringwith other known information to verify the identity of the user. In oneparticular example, the verification circuit 144 may track and scrapesocial media profiles of users that may be the minor. At this point,there are data points potentially associated with the minor. Each of theplurality of profiles may be scored. In one embodiment, the scoring is aranking system that ranks the profiles from most likely to be associatedwith the minor to least likely. For example, profiles corresponding tolocations or a location believed to be associated with the minor may beranked higher than profiles unassociated with that location. As anotherexample, profiles with web activity believed to be associated with theminor's interests (e.g., sports) may be ranked higher. Based on thisscoring and ranking, these profiles may be compared to the knowninformation regarding the minor (e.g., date of birth, informationprovided by the adult, and so on). If the profile matches at least oneor a designated piece or pieces of information to the known information,then the verification circuit 144 confirms the identity of the minor.

To receive the information from which a determination can be maderegarding the identity of the individual, the verification circuit 144may contact and communicate with, via the network interface circuit 142and the network 120, various entities that provide or store informationrelating to the identity of the individual. For example, theverification circuit 144 may, via one or more APIs, couple to one ormore government computing systems. Due to this coupling, theverification circuit 144 may receive government-specific informationfrom these databases (e.g., birth certificate information, stateidentification number, passport information, motor vehicle records,etc.). As a specific example, the verification circuit 144 maycommunicate with the department of education to determine the schoolattended by the individual. The department of education or verificationcircuit 144 or 156 may then attempt to contact the individual forverification (e.g., via a school-issued email address accessible only bythe individual). If the individual responds to the email sent, then theverification circuit 144 may confirm the identity of the minor. If theindividual does not respond or does not respond to the email in apredefined or preset amount of time (e.g., 30 minutes), then theverification circuit 144 may not confirm the identity of the minor. Withrespect to confirming the individual's identity, the verificationcircuit 144 may have confidence that only enrolled persons with thisschool may respond and, if the person (minor) responds affirmatively,this is confirmation that the person is enrolled with this school andtheir identity is confirmed.

In some arrangements, the verification circuit 144 may also communicatewith, for example, a technology provider (e.g., Google, Apple, oranother entity that provides technology and/or network access tostudents in schools) in order to determine the identity of theindividual. These entities may digitally engage with the individual by,for example, supporting the user's music playlists, Internet browsinghistory, and so on. If the individual consents to share theircredentials with the provider institution computing system 150 to sharewith the verification computing system 140, then the verificationcircuit 144 may scrape data from this entity associated with thecredentials. Alone or in combination with one or more other factors, theverification circuit 144 may establish a pattern of use of the servicesprovided by this entity to establish a nominal behavior for the userassociated with these credentials. If the pattern aligns with anexpectation, the verification circuit 144 may confirm the identity ofthe user. For example, the verification circuit 144 may receive an inputthat the user goes to school in Delaware and then examine their searchhistory as relating to Delaware-based activities and locations and, inresponse, confirm the identity of the user based on ageo/location-mapping process.

In yet other arrangements, the verification circuit 144 may communicatewith, for example, various social media websites (e.g., Facebook,Instagram, etc.) associated with the individual (minor) and/or one ormore adults associated with the individual to create, determine, build,or otherwise generate a profile for the individual based onlinks/connections between the individual and the one or more adults. Forexample, the adult profile may be known based on information stored inthe provider institution computing system 150. The adult profile mayinclude various images of the adult associated with the adult computingdevice along with presumed images of the minor based on captions notingthe name of the individual (or, face recognition tools may be used toidentify a person with the adult and then this recognized image may becross-checked with a facial image of the minor that is received from theminor device for a match or a substantial match to confirm the identityof the minor). The verification circuit 144 may determine that theindividual is associated with the adult based on the images andcaptions. The profile of the individual may also include various imagesof the individual with the one or more adults with captions noting thenames of the adults. The verification circuit 144 may determine that theindividual is associated with the one or more adults based on the imagesand captions.

The provider institution computing system 150 is operated by a providerinstitution and is configured to establish and maintain user financialaccounts. The provider institution provides products and services suchas, but not limited to, credit card accounts, mobile wallet accounts,checking/saving accounts, retirement accounts, mortgage accounts, loanaccounts, investment and accounts, and the like via the providerinstitution computing system 150. The provider institution may be afinancial institution, such as commercial or private banks, creditunions, investment brokerages, or the like. The provider institutioncomputing system 150 includes a network interface circuit 152, anaccount opening circuit 154, a verification circuit 156, and an accountsdatabase 158.

The network interface circuit 152 is structured to enable communicationsover the network 120 and includes, for example, hardware and associatedprogram logic that couples the provider institution computing system 150to the network 120 to facilitate operative communication with the adultcomputing device 110, the minor computing device 130, and theverification computing system 140.

The verification circuit 156 is substantially similar to theverification circuit 144, with the only difference being that theverification circuit 156 is associated with the provider institutioncomputing system 150. In some arrangements, it is desirable to have anindependent entity (e.g., the verification computing system 140 and theverification circuit 144) to evaluate and/or verify the identity ofindividuals. In other arrangements, the provider institution (via theprovider institution computing system 150 and the verification circuit156) may directly evaluate and/or verify the identity of individuals.Accordingly, the functions and structure attributed to the verificationcircuit 144 herein is equally applicable with the verification circuit156 and the provider institution computing system 150.

The account opening circuit 154 is configured to evaluate applicationsfor opening new accounts (e.g., jointly owned savings and checkingaccounts and other types of accounts) and to establish accounts uponapproval of the applications. The account opening circuit 154 mayreceive identification information from one or more of the adultcomputing device or the minor computing device via the providerinstitution application 116 regarding the adult and/or minor. Theaccount opening circuit 154 may also receive verification informationfrom one or more of the verification circuit 144 and the verificationcircuit 156 regarding the verification of the identity of the minor. Forexample, if the account opening circuit 154 receives information fromone or more of the verification circuit 144 and the verification circuit156 that the identity of the individual attempting to open an accountcannot be verified, the account opening circuit 154 may deny theapplication of the individual. In contrast, if the account openingcircuit 154 receives information from one or more of the verificationcircuit 144 and the verification circuit 156 that the identity of theindividual attempting to open an account is verified, the accountopening circuit 154 may approve the application of the individual andestablish the desired account.

The accounts database 158 may be or include non-transient data storagemediums (e.g., local disc or flash-based hard drives, local networkservers) or remote data storage facilities (e.g., cloud servers). Theaccounts database 158 may include or store personal customer information(e.g., names, addresses, phone numbers), identification information(e.g., driver's license numbers, standard biometric data), and customerfinancial information (e.g., token information, account numbers, accountbalances, available credit, credit history, transaction histories). Insome arrangements, in order to open an account for a minor at thefinancial institution, an adult must have an account established at thefinancial institution for a specified period (e.g., six months, oneyear, etc.). Before allowing a minor to open an account, the accountsdatabase 158 may be accessed by the account opening circuit 154 todetermine if the adult associated with the minor has an account with theprovider institution, and whether the account has been open for longerthan the specified period.

Referring now to FIG. 2 , a flow diagram illustrating a method 200 forKYC to verify an identity of a minor in order to open an account for theminor is depicted, according to an example embodiment. At 202, a requestis received from an adult device to open an account for a minor at afinancial institution. For example, the adult associated with the adultcomputing device 110 may desire to open an account for a minor legallyassociated with the adult (e.g., the adult's child, etc.). In oneembodiment, the adult may be a new customer to the provider institution.In another embodiment and in order to open an account for a minor, theadult must be a customer of the provider institution for more than apredefined amount of time (e.g., 6 months). The adult may then, via theadult computing device 110, open the provider institution application116 and begin a process to open an account for the minor by selectingthe appropriate buttons/icons on the provider institution application116 (e.g., a graphical user interface generated and provided by theprovider institution application 116 may include a selectable icon for“open a joint account for a minor” that the adult may select). Theprovider institution application 116 may prompt the adult to provideinformation relating to the minor such as, for example, the minor'sname, address, contact information (e.g., email address, mobile phonenumber, etc.), date of birth, relationship to the adult, the name of theschool attended by the minor, and any other information that cansubsequently be used to verify the identity of the minor. In oneembodiment, at least two forms of identification of the minor must beverified before being approved to open an account. In other embodiments,one form of identification of the minor must be verified before beingapproved to open an account.

In some arrangements, the adult computing device 110 and the minorcomputing device 130 may be digitally coupled during the account openingprocess. For example, the provider institution computing system 150 mayreceive information relating to the adult computing device 110 and theminor computing device 130. The information may include one or more of ageographic location of the adult computing device 110 and the minorcomputing device 130, the name of the network(s) through which the adultcomputing device 110 and the minor computing device 130 arecommunicating with the provider institution computing system 150, etc.In some arrangements, the account opening process may only be allowed toproceed if, for example, the adult computing device 110 and the minorcomputing device 130 are located in the same geographic location (e.g.,indicating that the adult and the minor are together during theprocess), which may be determined based on GPS data from each of thedevices. In other arrangements, the account opening process may only beallowed to proceed if, for example, the adult computing device 110 andthe minor computing device 130 are communicating over the same network.In yet other arrangements, the account opening process may only beallowed to proceed if each action taken by the adult computing device110 and the minor computing device 130 occurs within a specified time(e.g., within two minutes, within five minutes, etc.). In still anotherembodiment, the provider institution computing system 150 may keep trackof the mobile/computing devices of the adult and only allow the processto proceed if the minor device is a recognized device of the trackedmobile/computing devices of the adult. In still further embodiments, atap (e.g., a near field communication tap) may be required to pair orlink the adult computing device 110 to the minor computing device 130.By digitally coupling the devices in one or more of these manners, theprovider institution application 116 of the adult computing device 110may be coupled to the provider institution application 116 of the minorcomputing device 130 in a linked manner as a condition for proceedingwith the account opening process. This coupling process acts as avouching action by the adult for the minor computing device 130. Inother words, this linking process ensures that the desired device—theminor computing device 130—is linked or synched to the adult computingdevice during opening of the account. This coupling results in a sharedapplication of the provider institution application 116 such that directmessaging between the two applications of the two devices occurs. Forexample, the minor computing device 130 may display, based on agenerated GUI from the provider institution application 116, a requestto pair or link with the adult computing device 110 which may prompt theminor computing device to NFC tap with the adult computing device 110.This action syncs to the two applications of the two devices during theprocess thereby adding security to the overall account opening process.In one example, the account application form for the minor is displayedvia the provider institution application 116 on both the minor andadult's computing devices. As such, simultaneous editing and revising ofthe account application form is provided. In other embodiments, thiscoupling process may be omitted.

At 204, a request for verification of the identity of the adult is sent.For example, prior to allowing the adult to open an account for theminor, the identity of the adult may be required to be verified. Theprovider institution may, via the provider institution computing system150 and the provider institution application 116 on the adult computingdevice 110, prompt or send a request to the adult to enter informationfor purposes of verifying the identity of the adult. The informationrequested may include, but is not limited to, a username and password,an identifying number (e.g., a social security number, driver's licensenumber, passport number, etc.), a passcode, a biometric marker (e.g.,finger print, retina scan, facial scan, etc.), etc. The identity of theadult may also be verified by sending a verification request to analternate method of contact (e.g., email address, phone number, etc.)where a verification code may be provided for the adult to enter intothe provider institution application 116 via the I/O device 114. In somearrangements, the identity of the adult may be verified by theverification computing system 140 (e.g., via the verification circuit144) or the verification circuit 156. In arrangements where the identityof the adult is verified by the verification computing system 140, arequest may be sent from the provider institution computing system 150to the verification computing system 140 to initiate the identityverification process for the adult. The verification computing system140 may then communicate with various other databases (e.g., departmentof motor vehicles, Social Security Administration, passport services,military enlistment, etc.) to verify or attempt to verify the identityof the adult. In some arrangements, the identity of the adult isverified via a video conference with an employee of the financialinstitution. For example, the provider institution application 116 mayprovide the adult with an option to initiate a video call with anemployee of the financial institution. Upon connecting with theemployee, the employee may ask various identification questions andrequest to see various forms of identification (e.g., driver's license,etc.) to verify the identity of the adult.

At 206, a determination is made as to whether the identity of the adultis verified by the verification circuit 144 or 156. For example, if theadult provides incorrect information to the provider institutionapplication 116 (e.g., an incorrect passcode and/or password, anincorrect identifying number, an incorrect biometric marker, etc.), at208, the request to open an account for the minor is denied by theprovider institution computing system 150.

If the adult provides information to the provider institutionapplication 116 that allows the provider institution computing system150 to verify the identity of the adult, at 210, a request forverification of the minor is sent to the verification computing system140. Alternatively, the verification of the minor may be performed bythe provider institution computing system 150 such that a request is notsent to the verification computing system 140. In some arrangements, therequest for verification of the minor is sent to the adult computingdevice 110. In some arrangements, the adult can digitally vouch for theidentity of the minor by selecting a box on the provider institutionapplication 116 (i.e., an act of verification by the adult of theminor's identity).

In arrangements where additional verification is required, the adultassociated with the adult computing device 110 may be required toprovide information relating to the minor to provide or determine abaseline from which the identity of the minor may be verified by theverification computing system 140. For example, the adult computingdevice 110 may receive a message via the provider institutionapplication 116 that the adult must provide initial identificationinformation (e.g., name, age, date of birth, home address, schoolinformation, gender, etc.). The identification information can alsoinclude an image or photo of the minor, a copy of an identification cardof the minor (e.g., a school or government issued identification card),a copy of the minor's birth certificate, a copy of a school enrollmentform, or any other type of information that may be used as a baselinefrom which the identity of the minor may be verified.

At 212, a determination is made as to whether the identity of the minoris verified by the verification circuit 144. The verification circuit144 of the verification computing system 140 may, via the network 120,communicate with one or more databases to verify the identity of theminor. In some arrangements, the verification circuit 144 sends a pushnotification to the minor computing device 130. The push notificationmay notify the minor that an adult is attempting to open an account inthe name of the minor, and allow the minor to approve or deny theattempt. This push notification is based on the received contactinformation of the minor device from the adult computing device 110 viathe provider institution application 116. Approval of the attempt toopen the account may serve as one method of verification of the identityof the minor. Further and in this situation, verification of the minor'sidentity is solely done based on the adult vouching for the minor'sidentity (i.e., no communication with other databases or systems) and,sometimes, on identity information provided by the minor or adult to theprovider institution application 116 and, in turn, the providerinstitution computing system 150. This is advantageous due to therelatively quickness that an account may be opened for a minor. This useof only adult-provided information may be implemented in certainarrangements, such as when a level of trust is achieved with the adult.The level of trust may be associated with a trigger: when the trustlevel is at or above the predefined threshold, no trigger is caused;when the trust level is below the predefined threshold, a trigger iscaused that causes the verification circuit 156 or 144 to send a messageto other databases or acquire other information regarding the minor toconfirm his/her identity. In one embodiment, the level of trust is basedon a time duration that the adult has been a customer of the providerinstitution and a current number of assets under management with theprovider institution. Relatively longer duration relationships betweenthe adult and the provider institution as well has higher assets undermanagement may result with more trust being given to the adult such thatwhen the adult vouches for the minor, the provider institution computingsystem 150 (particularly, the verification circuit 156) accepts thevouching. As an example, the customer may be required to have at least$10,000 in an account and have been a customer for 5 years to bypassexamination of third-party data to verify the identity of the minor. Asanother example, different amounts/values or used. Further, othermetrics may be used in combination with or in place of the length oftime of the relationship and the assets under management, such aswhether any flags have been raised with the account (suspected offraudulent activity, late payment notices, etc.). Thus, defining the“level of trust” or predefined level may vary based on the institution.

In this example, the adult (e.g., parent) may upload identifyinginformation regarding the minor via the provider institution application116 to the provider institution computing system 150. The adult mayprovide certain information regarding the minor (e.g., phone number,email address, and other contact information). This generates a promptbeing sent via the provider institution application 116 to the minorcomputing device 130 to sign up for the account. This process serves toengage a computing device (the minor computing device) based on theinformation provided by the adult. Once the provider institutionapplication 116 on the minor computing device 130 receives aconfirmation, the digital identity of the minor is done based only onthe adult vouching for the minor. The verification circuit 156 mayinclude controls, such as fraud controls that serve as additionalevidence/verification of the minor's identity. For example, the providerinstitution application 116 on the minor computing device 130 may berequired to receive biometric information, a one-time passcode sent tothe adult computing device, a credential of the adult for the providerinstitution application 116 on the adult computing device 110, etc. toauthenticate the adult which allows for identification of the minor. Asanother example, records such as medical records may be required to beprovided to the verification circuit 156. If the minor informationprovided by the adult matches that in the medical records (e.g., a childof the adult), the minor's identity may be verified. This “vouch system”may be used and implemented in a variety of different manners.

In another embodiment and as alluded to above with respect to causing atrigger, the verification circuit 144 may communicate with a third-party(particularly, a trusted third-party). For example, the trustedthird-party may be an educational institution associated with the schoolattended by the minor (e.g., the Department of Education, the schooldistrict where the school is located, the individual school, etc.). Inthis example, the verification circuit 144 may notify the educationalinstitution that a verified adult is attempting to open an account onbehalf of the minor. The educational institution may notify the minor(or one of the verification circuits 144 or 156) by sending an email toan email address associated with the minor, and providing the minor withthe option of verifying the identity of the minor by clicking on a linkin the email (e.g., “this is me” or “this is not me”). The response maybe provided to the educational institution, which then provides theresponse to the verification circuit 144, which notifies the providerinstitution computing system 150 (or, the response is directly receivedby one of the verification circuits 144 and 156 if sent by the one ofthe verification circuits). For example, the provider institution maypartner with the educational institution to enable a message to be sentfrom the provider institution computing system 150 to a selected emailaddress purportedly associated with the minor. The message may contain apasscode (e.g., word, phrase, alpha or alphanumeric value, etc.) thatmust be entered on the designated minor computing device 130 via theprovider institution application 116. If done, the verification circuit156 can confirm the identity of the minor. In this instance, the schoolis a trusted third-party. The educational institution may also providedigital copies of documentation offered regarding the minor such thatthe document(s) provided by the adult and the document(s) provided bythe educational institution can be compared by the verification circuit156 or 144. If the comparison of the documents yields a match (e.g., theinformation on the documents related to the minor matches), theverification circuit 144 may determine that the identity of the minor isverified. By attempting to verify the identity of the minor in themanner described, certain information related to the minor can beshielded from the verification circuit 144 to maintain privacy for theminor. Moreover, in this way, verification of the identity of the minoris done via an independent pathway of having a person associated withthe email address confirm or deny that he or she is the minor. In thisregard, if a fraudster was attempting to indicate that they were theminor (when they weren't), this person may be able to fake documents andinformation, but gaining access to a school ID email address is unlikelyand considerably more difficult. Accordingly, when that identity isconfirmed via the school ID email address, a reasonable confidence isprovided that the minor is who they or the adult purports to be.

In some arrangements, the verification circuit 144 may communicate witha technology provider (e.g., Apple, Google, Dell, or other technologyproviders). The technology company may attempt to communicate with theminor (e.g., via email, instant message, etc.) and notify the minor thatthe adult is attempting to open an account on behalf of the minor. Alink may be provided to the minor to verify the identity of the minor(e.g., by clicking a link labeled “this is me,” or “this is not me,”etc.). Or, a passcode may be provided via the email that may be requiredto be entered (such as via the provider institution application 116 ofthe minor computing device 130). If the passcode is entered, theprovider institution computing system 150 may verify the identity of theminor. In one embodiment, the response of the minor may be provided tothe technology provider, which then provides the response to theverification circuit 144, which notifies the provider institutioncomputing system 150.

In some arrangements, the verification circuit 144 may communicate withthe technology provider associated with the minor computing device 130.For example, if the minor computing device 130 is a mobile phone, theverification circuit 144 may communicate with the provider associatedwith the mobile phone number to verify the identity of the minor. If theminor computing device is equipped with facial recognition or otherbiometric recognition tools (e.g., camera, fingerprint scanner, etc. andassociated logic), the provider associated with the mobile phone numbermay send a push notification to the minor computing device 130 notifyingthe minor that the adult is attempting to open an account on behalf ofthe minor. The provider may allow the minor to verify the minor'sidentity by at least one of i) simply unlocking the mobile device usingbiometric data (e.g., looking at a camera on the mobile phone so thefacial recognition software can verify whether the identity of theperson holding the mobile phone is the minor), ii) using biometric datafrom within the provider institution application, iii) providing aone-time-passcode that the minor enters via the provider institutionapplication, and/or some combination thereof. The results of the facialrecognition are provided to the provider institution computing system150 (verification circuit 156) for verification. In this way, if theminor is able to unlock the phone or otherwise provides confirmedbiometric information in combination with the adult vouching for thisminor computing device 130 (based on information received from the adultregarding the minor computing device 130), the verification circuit 156may confirm the identity of the minor. While there is some risk that thebiometric information is impersonated, the principle is that the adultknows the minor associated with the device and if the minor can use thedevice (e.g., based on unlocking the phone), then this information issufficient to confirm the identity of the minor. In another embodimentand rather than receiving a confirmation or no confirmation notificationfrom the technology provider computing system, the technology providermay instead provide a digital image of the photo taken by the camera ofthe minor computing device 130 to the verification circuit 144, and theverification circuit 144 can compare the digital image of the phototaken by the camera of minor computing device 130 to an image or photoprovided by the adult computing device 110. If the verification circuitdetermines that the images and/or photos match, the identity of theminor is verified.

In some arrangements, the verification circuit 144 may communicate withvarious other databases that may verify the identity of the minor. Suchdatabases may include, but are not limited to, a birth certificatedatabase (e.g., a birth certificate may link the minor to the adult as aparent of the minor, etc.), a social security or other governmentwelfare database (e.g., a social security number may link the minor tothe adult as a guardian that requested a social security number for theminor, etc.), a motor vehicle database for a minor that has a driver'slicense (e.g., the data associated with the driver's license mayindicate the minor and the adult reside at the same address, etc.), anadoption database (e.g., to show a link between an adopted minor and theadoptive parent(s), etc.), and any other database that compilesinformation that may be used for the purposes of verifying the identityof a minor. Digital copies of documentation from the various otherdatabases may be provided to the verification circuit 144 to compare todocumentation copies provided by the adult (or searched and acquired bythe verification circuit 144). If the verification circuit 144determines that the information relating to the minor on thedocumentation provided by the adult and the documentation from thevarious other databases match, the verification circuit 144 can verifythe identity of the minor.

In various arrangements, the verification circuit 144 may notify theprovider institution computing system 150 that the identity of the minormust be verified via a video conference with an employee of thefinancial institution. This may occur, for instance, if the identity ofthe minor cannot otherwise be verified by the verification circuit 144.In such arrangements, an employee associated with the providerinstitution computing system 150 may initiate a video conference withthe adult via the adult computing device 110 and provider institutionapplication 116. During the video conference, the adult may be asked topresent various identification documents to prove the identity of theminor.

If the identity of the minor cannot be verified (e.g., if theverification circuit 144 cannot verify the identity of the minor), at208 the adult computing device 110 is notified and the request to openthe account for the minor is denied. If the identity of the minor isverified by the verification circuit 144, then at 214 a determination ismade as to whether any exceptions exist that would prevent the adultfrom opening the account for the minor.

In some arrangements, situations exist in which an adult that isassociated with a minor does not have a right to act on behalf of theminor. For example, the adult may be denied such rights by a court invarious proceedings (e.g., divorce, etc.). In such situations, eventhough the identities of both the adult and the minor may be verified,the request to open the account may still be denied by the verificationcircuit 156. To determine whether such situations exist, theverification circuit 144 may communicate with databases of entities thatinclude the desired information. Such entities may include, but are notlimited to, the court system of the country in which the adult and/orminor reside (e.g., to determine whether any orders exist to preventcontact between the adult and the minor or preventing the adult fromacting on behalf of the minor, etc.), police records (e.g., to determinewhether any police reports indicate that the adult has harmed orattempted to harm the minor, etc.), etc.

If the verification circuit 144 determines that one or more exceptionsexist that would prevent the adult from opening an account on behalf ofthe minor, at 208 the request to open the account is denied by theprovider institution computing system 150.

If the verification circuit 144 determines that no exceptions exist thatwould prevent the adult from opening an account on behalf of the minor,at 216 a link is sent to the minor computing device 130 to open anaccount. For example, the provider institution computing system 150sends a notification via the provider institution application 116 to theminor computing device 130. The notification may notify the minor thatthe minor has been approved to open an account with the providerinstitution, and provide a link for the minor to select to continue theprocess to open the account.

At 218, information is received from the minor computing device 130. Forexample, after selecting the link provided by the provider institutionapplication 116 to open the account, the provider institutionapplication 116 may direct the minor to provide additional informationto the provider institution computing system 150 via the providerinstitution application 116. Such information may include the minor'sname, date of birth, address, income, etc.

At 220, the account for the minor is opened by the account openingcircuit 154. For example, one or more of the information entered by theminor at 218 and the verification information generated by theverification circuit at 210 and/or 212 are used by the account openingcircuit 154 to open the account for the minor. The account for the minoris also added to the accounts database 158.

Though the verification of the identity of the minor and/or adult inFIG. 2 is described with reference to the verification circuit 144, oneof ordinary skill would understand that the functions performed by theverification circuit 144 may also be performed by the verificationcircuit 156. Accordingly, if the financial institution desired to verifythe identity of the minor without using the verification computingsystem 140, the verification circuit 156 may perform the sameverification functions as those performed by the verification circuit144.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating another method 300 for KYC,according to another example embodiment. The method 300 is substantiallysimilar to the method 200, with the only difference being that step 310differs from step 210 of FIG. 2 . Accordingly, the descriptions of steps302, 304, 306, 308, 312, 314, 316, 318, and 320 are substantiallysimilar to those of steps 202, 204, 206, 208, 212, 214, 216, 218, and220 of FIG. 2 .

At 310, a profile of the minor is analyzed to verify the identity of theminor. In some arrangements, upon receiving information related to theminor from the adult via the adult computing device 110, theverification circuit 156 may build, create, or otherwise generate aprofile for the adult and/or the minor by accessing various social mediawebsites (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.) via the network120. The verification circuit 156 may scrape data from the social mediawebsites and create a profile based on the data. As used herein, theterm “scrape” or “scraping” refers to the process of extracting datafrom a website. The profile may be a compilation of data/informationfrom one or more websites associated with the adult and/or minor that isused by the verification circuit 144 or 156 to verify the identity ofthe minor. This compilation of data may be used to determine, by theverification circuit 144 or 156, a pattern of behavior of the minorand/or adult, people connections of the adult and/or minor, and otherinformation pertaining to the adult and/or minor.

In some arrangements, the verification circuit 156 prompts the adultcomputing device 110, via the provider institution application 116, toprovide login credentials to access one or more social media profiles(or other accounts and/or websites) for the adult. In some arrangements,the verification circuit 156 prompts the adult computing device 110, viathe provider institution application 116, to provide login credentialsto access one or more social media profiles of the minor. Using thecredentials provided, the verification circuit 156 may navigate throughvarious web pages associated with the adult and/or the minor and extractdata related to the adult and/or the minor. For example, the profilepage of the minor may include information such as the minor's name, dateof birth, place of residence, a name of the school attended by theminor, etc. This information may be compared with other informationprovided by the adult to verify the identity of the minor. Additionally,the profile page of the minor may include posts and/or images thatmention the name of the adult and/or the relationship between the adultand the minor. This information may be used to verify the relationshipbetween the minor and the adult. Various additional information can alsobe used by the verification circuit 156 to verify the identity of theminor. For example, the minor may have posted an image of the minor'sdriver's license to celebrate passing the driver's test. The informationavailable on the image of the driver's license may be used to verify theidentity of the minor when attempting to open an account. Theverification circuit 156 may compare one or more of an image and variousother information related to the minor from the profiles built for theadult and/or the minor to information provided to the verificationcircuit 156 or the provider institution application 116 by the adult. Ifthe profile built for the adult and/or the minor includes informationrelated to the minor that matches information provided by the adult, theverification circuit 156 may determine that the identity of the minor isverified.

In some arrangements, the verification circuit 156 may attempt to accessthe social media profiles of the adult and/or the minor without askingto provide login credentials. In such arrangements, the verificationcircuit 156 attempts to scrape data from the profile pages as described.In instances where the profile pages are not private pages (e.g., anyindividual is allowed to view the profile pages) the verificationcircuit 156 may scrape the same data as it could scrape when providedwith the login credentials. In instances where the profile pages areprivate pages (e.g., an individual must be approved by the profile ownerbefore being allowed to view the profile pages), the verificationcircuit 156 may search for other public profiles that reference thename(s) of the adult and or the minor. For example, a friend of theminor may have a public profile and may have posted various items thatreference the minor. The verification circuit 156 may scrape data fromthe friend's profile page related to the minor in attempts to verify theidentity of the minor. The verification circuit 156 may compare one ormore of an image and various other information related to the minor fromthe profiles built for the adult and/or the minor to informationprovided to the verification circuit 156 or the provider institutionapplication 116 by the adult. If the profile built for the adult and/orthe minor includes information related to the minor that matchesinformation provided by the adult, the verification circuit 156 maydetermine that the identity of the minor is verified.

Though the verification of the identity of the minor and/or adult inFIG. 3 is described with reference to the verification circuit 156, oneof ordinary skill would understand that the functions performed by theverification circuit 156 may also be performed by the verificationcircuit 144. Accordingly, if the financial institution desired to verifythe identity of the minor using the verification computing system 140,the verification circuit 144 may perform the same verification functionsas those performed by the verification circuit 156.

As utilized herein, the terms “approximately,” “substantially,” andsimilar terms are intended to have a broad meaning in harmony with thecommon and accepted usage by those of ordinary skill in the art to whichthe subject matter of this disclosure pertains. It should be understoodby those of ordinary skill in the art who review this disclosure thatthese terms are intended to allow a description of certain featuresdescribed and claimed without restricting the scope of these features tothe precise numerical ranges provided. Accordingly, these terms shouldbe interpreted as indicating that insubstantial or inconsequentialmodifications or alterations of the subject matter described and claimedare considered to be within the scope of the disclosure as recited inthe appended claims.

Although only a few arrangements have been described in detail in thisdisclosure, those skilled in the art who review this disclosure willreadily appreciate that many modifications are possible (e.g.,variations in proportions of the various elements, values of parameters,etc.) without materially departing from the novel teachings andadvantages of the subject matter described herein. The order or sequenceof any method processes may be varied or re-sequenced according toalternative arrangements. Other substitutions, modifications, changes,and omissions may also be made in the design, operating conditions andarrangement of the various exemplary arrangements without departing fromthe scope of the present disclosure.

While described herein as the adult via the provider institutionapplication 116 on the adult computing device 110 as initiating openingan account for the minor and then engaging the minor via the minorcomputing device 130 and provider institution application 116, in analternate embodiment, the minor may initiate the account opening via theminor computing device 130 and provider institution application 116. Inone embodiment, information providing via the provider institutionapplication 116 from the minor and regarding the minor may be providedto the verification circuit 144 or 156 for verification. In this case,information may be directly inputted (e.g., name, date of birth, etc.)via the provider institution application 116. Alternatively oradditionally, the provider institution application 116 may scrape theminor computing device 130 to send information associated with the useof the minor computing device 130 (e.g., biometric information, publiccredentials for accounts such as social media accounts, and any otherdata that may be shared by the minor computing device 130 with theprovider institution application 116, etc.). The provider institutionapplication 116 may then transmit this combination of minor-provideddata and scraped data from the minor device to the verification circuit156 to confirm the identity of the minor. This adds security to theidentity verification process by using data from the minor computingdevice 130 that is or likely is not fraudulently manipulated (e.g., bythe minor). Based on the received information, the verification circuit156 may verify the identity of the minor. For example, the verificationcircuit 156 may use this data to identify potentially related adults(e.g., last name, shared residence/similar geographic location, etc.).The verification circuit 156 may examine the information of the adult,such as whether he or she has kids, the names of the kids, etc. If thereis a likelihood that the minor is associated with an identified adult,the verification circuit 156 may send a notification to the adultcomputing device 110 via the provider institution application 116 toconfirm the identity of the minor. If the adult, via the providerinstitution application 116, confirms the identity, the verificationcircuit 156 approves the identity and the account may be opened. Inanother embodiment, multiple notifications are sent to multiplepotential adults associated with the minor in order to cast a broadernet. In an alternative embodiment, the verification circuit 156 does notreach out to the adult and instead uses acquired or stored informationto verify the identity of the minor (e.g., searching governmentdatabases for a match of information, etc.). In either situation, theidentity of the minor may be verified solely or primarily based oninformation provided by the minor by the verification circuit 156 toenable an account to be opened for the minor.

The systems and methods described herein provide for remotely anddigitally verifying the identity of a minor such that neither the minornor the adult must be physically present at the financial institution toopen an account. Furthermore, the minor and the adult do not need tophysically be located in the same place when opening an account.Remotely verifying the identity of a minor provides the benefit of nothaving to be physically present at a financial institution to open anaccount on behalf of a minor.

The arrangements described herein have been described with reference todrawings. The drawings illustrate certain details of specificarrangements that implement the systems, methods and programs describedherein. However, describing the arrangements with drawings should not beconstrued as imposing on the disclosure any limitations that may bepresent in the drawings.

It should be understood that no claim element herein is to be construedunder the provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 112(f), unless the element isexpressly recited using the phrase “means for.”

As used herein, the term “circuit” may include hardware structured toexecute the functions described herein. In some arrangements, eachrespective “circuit” may include machine-readable media for configuringthe hardware to execute the functions described herein. The circuit maybe embodied as one or more circuitry components including, but notlimited to, processing circuitry, network interfaces, peripheraldevices, input devices, output devices, sensors, etc. In somearrangements, a circuit may take the form of one or more analogcircuits, electronic circuits (e.g., integrated circuits (IC), discretecircuits, system on a chip (SOCs) circuits, etc.), telecommunicationcircuits, hybrid circuits, and any other type of “circuit.” In thisregard, the “circuit” may include any type of component foraccomplishing or facilitating achievement of the operations describedherein. For example, a circuit as described herein may include one ormore transistors, logic gates (e.g., NAND, AND, NOR, OR, XOR, NOT, XNOR,etc.), resistors, multiplexers, registers, capacitors, inductors,diodes, wiring, and so on).

The “circuit” may also include one or more processors communicativelycoupled to one or more memory or memory devices. In this regard, the oneor more processors may execute instructions stored in the memory or mayexecute instructions otherwise accessible to the one or more processors.In some arrangements, the one or more processors may be embodied invarious ways. The one or more processors may be constructed in a mannersufficient to perform at least the operations described herein. In somearrangements, the one or more processors may be shared by multiplecircuits (e.g., circuit A and circuit B may comprise or otherwise sharethe same processor which, in some example arrangements, may executeinstructions stored, or otherwise accessed, via different areas ofmemory). Alternatively or additionally, the one or more processors maybe structured to perform or otherwise execute certain operationsindependent of one or more co-processors. In other example arrangements,two or more processors may be coupled via a bus to enable independent,parallel, pipelined, or multi-threaded instruction execution. Eachprocessor may be implemented as one or more general-purpose processors,application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmablegate arrays (FPGAs), digital signal processors (DSPs), or other suitableelectronic data processing components structured to execute instructionsprovided by memory. The one or more processors may take the form of asingle core processor, multi-core processor (e.g., a dual coreprocessor, triple core processor, quad core processor, etc.),microprocessor, etc. In some arrangements, the one or more processorsmay be external to the apparatus, for example the one or more processorsmay be a remote processor (e.g., a cloud based processor). Alternativelyor additionally, the one or more processors may be internal and/or localto the apparatus. In this regard, a given circuit or components thereofmay be disposed locally (e.g., as part of a local server, a localcomputing system, etc.) or remotely (e.g., as part of a remote serversuch as a cloud based server). To that end, a “circuit” as describedherein may include components that are distributed across one or morelocations.

An exemplary system for implementing the overall system or portions ofthe arrangements might include a general purpose computing computers inthe form of computers, including a processing unit, a system memory, anda system bus that couples various system components including the systemmemory to the processing unit. Each memory device may includenon-transient volatile storage media, non-volatile storage media,non-transitory storage media (e.g., one or more volatile and/ornon-volatile memories), a distributed ledger (e.g., a blockchain), etc.In some arrangements, the non-volatile media may take the form of ROM,flash memory (e.g., flash memory such as NAND, 3D NAND, NOR, 3D NOR,etc.), EEPROM, MRAM, magnetic storage, hard discs, optical discs, etc.In other arrangements, the volatile storage media may take the form ofRAM, TRAM, ZRAM, etc. Combinations of the above are also included withinthe scope of machine-readable media. In this regard, machine-executableinstructions comprise, for example, instructions and data which cause ageneral purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purposeprocessing machines to perform a certain function or group of functions.Each respective memory device may be operable to maintain or otherwisestore information relating to the operations performed by one or moreassociated circuits, including processor instructions and related data(e.g., database components, object code components, script components,etc.), in accordance with the example arrangements described herein.

It should be noted that although the diagrams herein may show a specificorder and composition of method steps, it is understood that the orderof these steps may differ from what is depicted. For example, two ormore steps may be performed concurrently or with partial concurrence.Also, some method steps that are performed as discrete steps may becombined, steps being performed as a combined step may be separated intodiscrete steps, the sequence of certain processes may be reversed orotherwise varied, and the nature or number of discrete processes may bealtered or varied. The order or sequence of any element or apparatus maybe varied or substituted according to alternative arrangements.Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included withinthe scope of the present disclosure as defined in the appended claims.Such variations will depend on the machine-readable media and hardwaresystems chosen and on designer choice. It is understood that all suchvariations are within the scope of the disclosure. Likewise, softwareand web arrangements of the present disclosure could be accomplishedwith standard programming techniques with rule based logic and otherlogic to accomplish the various database searching steps, correlationsteps, comparison steps and decision steps.

The foregoing description of arrangements has been presented forpurposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the precise form disclosed, andmodifications and variations are possible in light of the aboveteachings or may be acquired from this disclosure. The arrangements werechosen and described in order to explain the principals of thedisclosure and its practical application to enable one skilled in theart to utilize the various arrangements and with various modificationsas are suited to the particular use contemplated. Other substitutions,modifications, changes and omissions may be made in the design,operating conditions and arrangement of the arrangements withoutdeparting from the scope of the present disclosure as expressed in theappended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for remotely verifying an identity of aminor to open an account at a financial institution for the minor, themethod comprising: receiving, by a financial institution computingsystem associated with the financial institution, a request from anadult computing device associated with an adult to open the account;remotely verifying, by a verification circuit, an identity of the adultbased on received information regarding the adult; receiving, by thefinancial institution computing system, information relating to theminor from a minor computing device associated with the minor; scraping,by the verification circuit, data from one or more social media profilesassociated with the adult; comparing, by the verification circuit, thescraped data to information from the adult regarding the minor; inresponse to a match, remotely verifying, by the verification circuit,the identity of the minor based on the received information relating tothe minor; and opening, by an account opening circuit associated withthe financial institution computing system, the account on behalf of theminor.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the verification circuit isassociated with the financial institution computing system.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the verification circuit is associated with averification computing system, the verification computing systemindependent from the financial institution computing system.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising communicating, by the verificationcircuit, with one or more databases to receive other informationregarding the minor.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the otherinformation regarding the minor comprises a social security number, adriver's license number, or a school email address associated with theminor.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: comparing, by theverification circuit, the received other information regarding the minorto the received information relating to the minor; determining a matchof at least one piece of other information to the received information;and responsive to the match, proceeding to remotely verify, by theverification circuit, the identity of the minor.
 7. The method of claim1, wherein the information relating to the minor comprises one or moreof an image of the minor and an act of verification by the adult.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: sending, by the verificationcircuit, other information regarding the minor comprising a socialsecurity number, a driver's license value, or information regarding abirth certificate of the minor to a computing system storing associatedinformation regarding the minor; and receiving, by the verificationcircuit, a confirmation that the associated information matches theother information regarding the minor stored by the financialinstitution computing system to verify the identity of the minor.
 9. Aprovider institution computing system structured to remotely verify anidentity of a minor, the system comprising: a verification circuitcoupled to a first computing device associated with an adult and asecond computing device associated with a minor, the verificationcircuit structured to: receive information relating to an identity ofthe minor from the first computing device, the information comprisingcontact information for the minor; send a notification to the secondcomputing device based on the information received from the firstcomputing device; and in response to receiving an affirmative reply fromthe second computing device, verify the identity of the minor; and anaccount opening circuit structured to open an account for the minorbased on the identity of the minor being verified by the verificationcircuit, wherein the verification circuit is structured to receive anindication of a coupling of the second computing device to the firstcomputing device before the account opening circuit is structured toopen the account.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the verificationcircuit is further structured to receive additional information relatingto the identity of the minor from one or more entities via a networkand, based on a combination of the additional information and theinformation from the first computing device, send the notification tothe second computing device to facilitate verification of the identityof the minor.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the additionalinformation comprises one or more of an image of the minor, anidentifying number associated with the minor, and an act of verificationby the adult.
 12. The system of claim 9, wherein the indication of thecoupling includes a near-field communication tap of the first computingdevice to the second computing device.
 13. The system of claim 9,wherein the indication of the coupling includes identifying informationregarding the second computing device being received by the verificationcircuit from the first computing device.
 14. A method for remotelyidentifying an identity of a minor, comprising: receiving, by afinancial institution computing system associated with a financialinstitution, a request from an adult computing device associated with anadult to open an account at the financial institution for the minor;requesting, by a verification circuit from one or more entities,information relating to the identity of the minor based on the request;receiving, by the verification circuit from the one or more entities,the information relating to the identity of the minor; receiving, by theverification circuit from the adult computing device, informationregarding the identity of the minor; determining, by the verificationcircuit, that the information from the one or more entities verifies theidentity of the minor based on a comparison of the information from theone or more entities to the information received from the adultcomputing device; sending, by the verification circuit, an emailcomprising a passcode to a minor computing device associated with theminor, wherein the email is a school email address identified from atleast one of the one or more entities or information from the adultcomputing device; in response to not receiving the passcode in apredefined amount of time, not verifying, by the verification circuit,the identity of the minor; and in response to receiving the passcodefrom the minor computing device, verifying, by the verification circuit,the identity of the minor and verifying the identity of the minor,opening, by an account opening circuit associated with the financialinstitution, the account for the minor.
 15. The method of claim 14,further comprising requesting, by the verification circuit, informationrelating to the identity of the adult from the adult computing deviceprior to contacting and receiving information from the one or moreentities regarding the minor.
 16. The method of claim 14, furthercomprising receiving, by the financial institution computing system,information relating to the minor from the minor computing deviceassociated with the minor.
 17. The method of claim 16, furthercomprising comparing, by the verification circuit, the informationrelating to the minor from the minor computing device to the informationfrom the one or more entities to verify the identity of the minor.